The increasing digitization of media and the rapid proliferation of broadband access have resulted in a growing adoption of WiFi or Ethernet-based home networks, connecting networked consumer appliances such as streaming audio and video clients to e.g. home PCs or other consumer electronic devices such as network-attached storage devices. DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) acts as a leading certification body for consumer electronic devices based on UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and web standards to facilitate smooth interworking between home media appliances.
At the same time, consumers increasingly make use of online services, such as online music portals, video on demand (VoD) services or community web sites. In the future it is expected that the demand for interworking solutions between off-the-shelf consumer electronic devices (e.g. based on DLNA) and online network services (e.g. based on IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem)) or web services will be rapidly increasing. It is desirable to provide end-to-end solutions that enable interworking between DLNA appliances and IMS-controlled operator services based on an intermediary gateway function that provides the required interworking logic. In this architecture IMS services can be launched and controlled on standard non-IMS consumer electronic equipment, such as a DLNA-powered TV.
Furthermore, the users of mobile communication units, such as cellular phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), are also increasingly accessing online music and television services, news and blogging portals and other data services from their mobile phones.
In a 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) environment, the mobile phone hosts a subscriber identity module (SIM) used to securely authenticate the user towards the network, connect the user equipment to the subscribed service portfolio and subsequently charge subscribers based on service usage.
The operator of the cellular network of the mobile communication unit typically provides the user with quick links to services, such as online media portals, so that for example access to multimedia sources is just one click away in the mobile communication unit's browser.
While accessing online services on a personal computer or a cellular phone is simple for the user and supported by sophisticated input devices, such as a keyboard/-pad and mouse/five-way-buttons, consumer electronic devices, such as TVs, streaming clients or Internet radios, lack these input mechanisms and are typically operated via buttons or at most an advanced remote control.
Using a remote control it is virtually impossible to enter a uniform resource locator (URL) to address online resources. For ease-of-use, URLs must be either pre-provisioned in the consumer electronic device's browser or the application or portal environment provides links to online content. This obviously limits flexibility, for example when a resource address changes or when the user wants to add content sources to the repository.
Another important aspect can be seen in the fact that devices not belonging to the user's own environment, such as a hotel TV or a friend's music streaming device, do not have any knowledge about the user's operator relationships and services and can therefore not provide access to the user's service portfolio.
Mechanisms have been deployed providing authentication to a user's service repository and for using the mobile communication unit for payment, e.g. based on reverse SMS. By way of example iPX (Internet Payment Exchange) is offering a payment solution where the user can enter his mobile phone number in a web service. iPX then sends an SMS to the user's phone assuming he or she sits close to the requesting device. Once confirmed, iPX approves the payment and the content can be delivered to the requesting device.
The iPX solution shows the benefits of operator-enabled micro-payments in terms of security and charging, however, entering a mobile phone number, e.g. on a TV, can be very tedious or even impossible.